Plunder the Graves precon upgrade guide

Twelve creatures in this box cost six or more, and Meren returns a creature to the battlefield only when its mana value is no higher than her experience counters. Eleven swaps cut the top end in half and give her more deaths to count.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth has one number that matters, and the box never builds around it. At your end step she picks a creature card in your graveyard. If its mana value is no higher than your experience counters, it returns to the battlefield. If it’s higher, it goes to your hand. Counters come from one place: another creature you control dying.

Count the stock list against that rule. Twelve creatures cost three or less, so two or three counters brings each of them back. Twelve cost six or more, and the two eight-drops want eight counters. No creature costs one. And only three cards let you sacrifice your own creatures at will for no mana: Blood Bairn, Phyrexian Plaguelord and the land High Market.

So the deck collects counters slowly and spends its late turns hardcasting the creatures Meren can’t reach yet. The swaps work on both ends: more cheap deaths in, and the six-drops and up cut from twelve to six.

What are the best Plunder the Graves upgrades?

Ranked by how much each group changes a game where Meren is on the table:

1. Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder and Ashnod's Altar: three more outlets that cost no mana to use. With Yawgmoth below, the deck goes from three of them to seven, and every sacrifice is a counter.
2. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: pay 1 life and sacrifice another creature to draw a card. His second ability proliferates, and proliferate can pick you, so it adds an experience counter once you have one.
3. Morbid Opportunist, Blood Artist and Pitiless Plunderer: they draw, drain and make Treasure when creatures die, and the dearest of them costs four mana.
4. Woodland Cemetery, Overgrown Tomb and Llanowar Wastes: always-tapped lands fall from seven to four, and green clears the one-source-short line it missed in the box.
5. Arcane Signet: a two-mana rock for both colours, in a deck whose only other two-mana rocks are Golgari Signet and Thought Vessel.
6. Six cuts from the top end: the cards at six mana and up fall from twelve to six.

Eleven cards leave. The list is below.

Twelve cheap creatures, twelve expensive ones, and Meren in between

Meren’s best targets are the cheap creatures that do something when they arrive. Wall of Blossoms and Phyrexian Rager draw a card. Eternal Witness and Skullwinder return a card from your graveyard to your hand. Wood Elves puts a Forest onto the battlefield (Overgrown Tomb is a Forest, so it can fetch that), and Satyr Wayfinder digs four cards for a land. All six cost three or less, so at an end step with three counters she replays any of them for free once it’s in the graveyard. Skullwinder also lets one opponent take a card back from their graveyard, which is the price of using it.

The other end of the curve is where counters run out. Terastodon and Verdant Force cost eight, and a seven-drop has to wait for seven counters before Meren will put it on the battlefield. Until then she hands it back to you to cast at full price. The nonland cards average mana value 4 in the box and 3.54 after the swaps.

Two stock cards ignore the threshold, which is why they stay. Scourge of Nel Toth can be cast from the graveyard for BB and two sacrificed creatures. Champion of Stray Souls sacrifices X other creatures to return X creature cards of any mana value, and those X sacrifices are X counters for Meren as well. Butcher of Malakir stays because every death on your side makes each opponent sacrifice a creature, Eater of Hope because it turns two sacrifices into removal, and Extractor Demon and Cloudthresher because a 5/5 flier with unearth and a flash 7/7 are still fair rates at six (Cloudthresher’s 2 damage also hits you and kills your own Mazirek). Six creatures at six and up is a top end. Twelve is a queue.

Seven outlets, and what each death pays

A sacrifice outlet is only worth what happens when it’s used. In this deck three things happen. Meren gets a counter. Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest gives every creature you control a +1/+1 counter whenever any player sacrifices another permanent, and that includes the Treasure tokens Pitiless Plunderer makes. And the payoff cards fire: Blood Artist drains one for each creature that dies, Morbid Opportunist draws once a turn when one or more other creatures die, and Pitiless Plunderer turns each of your creatures dying into a Treasure.

Skullclamp is the cheapest way to start all of that. It gives +1/-1, so any creature with toughness one dies the moment it’s equipped, and you draw two cards. The stock list has at least six: Sakura-Tribe Elder, Satyr Wayfinder, Wood Elves, Viridian Emissary, Lotleth Troll and Eternal Witness. Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder and Blood Artist add three more, so once Skullclamp is out, one mana buys a counter and two cards from any of nine or more creatures.

Yawgmoth is the one expensive piece, at $22.58, and the one I’d argue about. He is the only add that draws on demand, and nothing else here adds experience counters without a creature dying. He also costs BB, in a deck that has two black sources by turn three only about 72% of the time. If the price is the problem, he’s the add to leave for last.

The eleven that leave

Six from the top end, where the queue is:

• Terastodon: eight mana to destroy up to three noncreature permanents, and each one hands its controller a 3/3. Meren can’t return it before eight counters.
• Verdant Force: eight mana for a Saproling every upkeep, including everyone else’s. Mycoloth is a Saproling engine at five and stays.
• Great Oak Guardian: six mana at flash speed to give a team +2/+2 and untap it. It keeps creatures alive, and this deck wants a steady supply of them dying.
• Thief of Blood: it removes every counter from every permanent as it enters. That wipes the +1/+1 counters on Mycoloth, Bloodspore Thrinax, Lotleth Troll and anything Mazirek has pumped, and the charge counters on both Vivid lands. Experience counters sit on players, so those are safe.
• Caller of the Pack: seven mana for an 8/6 whose text is trample and myriad.
• Pathbreaker Ibex: six mana for an attack trigger that gives the team trample and +X/+X. Overwhelming Stampede does the same at five with no attack required, and it stays.

Two cheaper creatures that answer things nobody was attacking:

• Indrik Stomphowler: a 4/4 for five whose enter trigger is mandatory. With none of theirs around, it has to hit one of yours, and Sol Ring and Skullclamp are right there.
• Viridian Zealot: it costs GG, one of the twelve spells in the box that want two green sources. Acidic Slime, Putrefy, Golgari Charm and Tribute to the Wild still cover both: Slime does either, Putrefy hits artifacts, Charm hits enchantments, and Tribute makes an opponent pick.

And three tapped lands, covered in the next section: Golgari Guildgate, Golgari Rot Farm and Polluted Mire.

Seven tapped lands become four, and green stops being short

The box has 38 lands, 25 of them basics, and seven always enter tapped. Golgari Guildgate and Golgari Rot Farm are tapped two-colour lands, and Rot Farm also returns a land to your hand. Polluted Mire is tapped and makes only black. Woodland Cemetery, Overgrown Tomb and Llanowar Wastes take those three places, and the land count stays 38.

The source counts move more than the swaps suggest: black goes from 24 to 25 and green from 23 to 25, counting Arcane Signet. That closes green’s one-pip gap, a one-green spell on turn two, which was 89% and is 91.2%. Double-pip casts are the harder problem and stay one. Black still has twelve spells asking for BB by turn three, and the odds go from 69.4% to 71.8%. Green’s double-pip list shrinks from twelve spells to seven, because five of those spells leave, and its odds go from 66.7% to 71.8%. Cutting the demand did more there than any land could.

Each of the three has a cost. Woodland Cemetery enters tapped unless you control a Swamp or a Forest, which is usually met with 25 basics in the deck. Overgrown Tomb costs 2 life to enter untapped, and it’s a Swamp Forest, so Tainted Wood’s Swamp condition is met by it. Llanowar Wastes deals 1 damage to you for coloured mana. The Tomb is $8.77 of the cost, and Star Trek brings it back on 13 November 2026, so waiting is an option.

Three cards the usual cut logic would remove

Kessig Cagebreakers makes a 2/2 attacking Wolf for each creature card in your graveyard when it attacks. That graveyard is full on purpose: Mulch, Grisly Salvage, Satyr Wayfinder and Dread Summons all put creatures there, and Meren empties it slowly.

Bonehoard makes a 0/0 Germ, which is a creature you can sacrifice the turn it arrives (it dies on its own, giving Meren a counter, if no graveyard has a creature card), and the Equipment stays behind for equip {2}. Its bonus counts creature cards in every graveyard, so it grows as the graveyards fill, which is the same condition Cagebreakers wants.

Korozda Guildmage looks like a body that buffs one creature. Its other ability sacrifices a nontoken creature for that many Saprolings as its toughness, so a Wall of Blossoms becomes four 1/1s for four mana, and each of those is a future counter.

Grave Pact is the card I priced and left out, at $20.56. Every creature of yours that dies makes each other player sacrifice one, and it costs three black pips in a deck that already misses BB by turn three more than a quarter of the time. If you want one more purchase after the list, it’s the first I’d add. It isn’t a Game Changer, so the bracket doesn’t move.

The upgraded decklist

Eleven cards out, eleven in, for $55.16 at the cheapest released printing (checked 10 October 2026, and the cheapest can be a promo). Hover any name to see the card.

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist Playtest the upgraded deck

“Load into the deck builder” opens this list in your account, pinned to the printings the box shipped, ready to edit or save. “Copy decklist” gives you plain text for Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena, with no account needed.

FAQ

Does Meren work before anything has died?

Yes, at a smaller scale. Her end-step ability needs only a creature card in your graveyard. With no counters she puts it in your hand, because no creature in the deck costs zero. Counters upgrade that from a card in hand to a creature on the battlefield.

Do token creatures give Meren a counter?

Yes. Her trigger watches for another creature you control dying, and a token that goes to the graveyard counts. Saprolings from Mycoloth, Zombies from Dread Summons and the Germ from Bonehoard are all fodder. You can’t return a token with her, because it isn’t a card.

How much do the swaps cost, and does the bracket change?

The eleven adds total $55.16 at the cheapest released printing, checked 10 October 2026. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician ($22.58) and Ashnod’s Altar ($13.98) are $36.56 of that. None is a Game Changer, and nothing cut is one either, so Bracket 1 stays the floor both ways.

Can Meren get Scourge of Nel Toth back without seven counters?

She doesn’t have to. Scourge can be cast from your graveyard for BB and two sacrificed creatures, and that happens at sorcery speed like any creature spell. While Meren is out, both sacrifices count as deaths, so casting it is also two counters.

Is Yawgmoth worth $22.58 in this deck?

He is the one add that draws on demand, and his BB discard ability proliferates, which can add an experience counter to you. Meren’s rulings say proliferate counts. It needs a counter to start from, so it grows a total and doesn’t start one. If you’d rather not spend the money, Morbid Opportunist at $0.22 draws too, once a turn.

Why not add Grave Pact?

It costs three black pips, and black already comes up short on BB by turn three in this list. It’s also $20.56. Once the eleven are in, it’s next on the list, but it isn’t one of them.